Posted in: Key Players Top Story

More Hungry Kids, Greater Need for School Meals

Tags: Education Support Professionals, ESP, Healthy and Hunger Free Kids Act, Indiana, Memphis, middle class, NEA Health Information Network, NEA HIN, NEA Priority Schools Campaign, Nevada, poverty, President Barack Obama, school meals, Tennessee

By Amanda Litvinov, photo by Staci Maiers/NEA

As partisan clashes in Congress continue to delay decisions on measures that would provide some relief for middle class and poor Americans, a growing number of families are relying on free and reduced-price meals to prevent their children from going hungry.

The numbers paint a distressing picture: A New York Times analysis of Department of Agriculture data reveals a 17 percent increase in the number of students qualifying for subsidized lunches, with 11 states reporting a shocking 25 percent jump. Census figures show the number of people living in poverty reached an all-time high and the number of children considered poor rose by 1 million in 2010. And a new report from the Food Research and Action Center shows a dramatic drop in food spending—especially among black and Hispanic families—as more Americans face unemployment or underemployment.

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The toll it takes on students is clear to educators.

“When kids come to school hungry, you can tell,” said Doreen Raftery, who saw all too many students struggle through the school day on an empty stomach during her years working as a paraprofessional in New York City public schools. “They can’t concentrate, they can’t perform.”

Research supports her observations. Students who miss meals have more behavior problems and are more likely to fail math, arrive late at school, miss days entirely and repeat a grade.

Schools’ ability to respond to this result of the economic crisis would have been diminished if the bipartisan Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act had not been signed into law by President Obama a year ago, after educators and other child advocates across the country spoke up in favor of its passage. That measure expanded the reach of the National School Lunch and School Breakfast program by 115,000 students and improved the nutritional value of school breakfasts, lunches and other food options available in schools. At NEA’s urging, the bill also provided professional development funds for food service workers to learn new ways to prepare the most nutritious meals possible with available resources.

But even when students qualify for free meals, they don’t always get them: on average, less than half of children eligible for subsidized breakfast are eating it. Lower-income students with fewer transportation options are less likely to get to school early enough to take advantage of breakfast programs. Another possible barrier is students themselves—even in communities with widespread poverty, there’s a stigma attached to being seen eating in the cafeteria before school.

One option for communities with high percentages of widespread poverty is universal free meals in the classroom—if all students are given free food, none will be embarrassed by accepting the assistance. The NEA Health Information Network has partnered with the Food Research and Action Center, the National Association of Elementary School Principals Foundation and the School Nutrition Foundation to pilot a Breakfast in the Classroom program that allows students to eat while educators take attendance, give announcements, or read to students.

Dorothy Runnels, a cafeteria employee at Crump Elementary, a school in the Memphis pilot site, says Breakfast in the Classroom allows for “more one-on-one interaction with the students, so we know they’re getting the breakfast and they’ll eat it. I guarantee you without this program some of them wouldn’t end up getting breakfast at all.”

NEA’s Priority Schools Campaign (PSC) has also looked for solutions to student hunger. In Evansville, Indiana, in-classroom meals got even better when PSC funds helped purchase portable coolers that enable food service staff to include fresh fruits and vegetables. And in Clark County, Nevada, Kit Carson Elementary used School Improvement Grant funds to provide “wraparound services” that include sending kids home with backpacks filled with weekend food stuffs.

“Every day in America, more and more children are going to bed hungry and waking up not knowing where their next meal is going to come from or where they’re going to sleep at night,” said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. “This is a troubling trend that keeps me up at night, because failing our children—the most vulnerable in our society—is unconscionable. This is America. We’re better than that.”